Oregon AFL-CIO looks ahead

By DON McINTOSH, Associate Editor

Judging by the mood at the June 19 meeting of the Oregon AFL-CIO Executive Board, organized labor may be near a resurgence. Congress is likely to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain told Board members — though the “card check” part of the bill may be replaced by some other measure to make it easier to unionize. When it passes, Chamberlain wants affiliates of the state labor federation to be ready to hit the ground running.

In that light, leaders of affiliated unions will spend two days in early September at a strategy retreat led by organizational consultant Kevin Boyle, a member of the Communications Workers of America. Boyle will prepare for the retreat by interviewing labor figures about what could be done better. The meeting is expected to generate resolutions that would then go to the Oregon AFL-CIO’s biennial convention October 25-27 in Bend.

The Board also voted to fund a promotional campaign. It could be something like a state-level version of the nationwide “Union Yes” campaign of the 1980s, which had lasting impact in raising labor’s profile. To research and design the campaign, the Oregon AFL-CIO will be contracting with media consultant Mark Wiener and pollster Lisa Grove. The campaign would get its public launch this autumn.

As the meeting progressed, Oregon AFL-CIO Communications Director Elana Guiney watched on her laptop computer a debate under way in the Oregon House. Led by Rep. Michael Dembrow, a leader in American Federation of Teachers (AFT)-Oregon, the House passed a bill giving Oregon workers the right to refuse to attend workplace anti-union meetings. Board members cheered when the passage was reported, and Oregon AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Barbara Byrd announced plans to hold a workshop for union organizers on how to use that new right in union campaigns.

For all the optimism, it was also apparent that splits within labor could threaten future progress, as tensions with former AFL-CIO affiliates came out at the meeting. Most unions remain under the AFL-CIO umbrella, where federation rules bar “raiding” each others’ members. The idea is that unions are supposed to organize nonunion workers in their own industries, not spend resources persuading existing union members to switch unions. Accordingly, the Oregon AFL-CIO Board passed a resolution, modeled on one approved by the Nevada AFL-CIO, that condemns Service Employees International Union President Andy Stern and international officials for their role in a raid against UNITE HERE Local 226, which represents hotel and casino workers in Nevada. UNITE HERE, the textile and hotel workers union, is going through severe internal conflict — its former co-president, Bruce Raynor, left and formed a new union, Workers United, as an affiliate of SEIU. The new union is making a bid for UNITE HERE locals to break away and join it.

SEIU’s involvement in the UNITE HERE dispute could result in UNITE HERE leaving the Change to Win labor federation and rejoining the AFL-CIO.

The Oregon AFL-CIO E-Board passed two other resolutions. One, sponsored by the American Postal Workers Union, declares support for HR 658, a bill in Congress that would prevent the U.S. Postal Service from closing postal facilities until considering the effect on the workers. U.S. Reps. David Wu and Peter DeFazio have signed on as supporters of the bill.

The other resolution, sponsored by AFT-Oregon, calls on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to audit all banks seeking bailout funds and make the audits available to the public.like the Carpenters and (SEIU) The AFL-CIO resolutions don’t criticize SEIU locals in the two states, just the union’s national leadership for its actions in Nevada.